In 1985, UT Southwestern administration dedicated itself to ensuring that clinical researchers would be adequately trained in patient-oriented techniques in order to better compete for research grants and to meet the exciting challenges presented by molecular medicine. To this end, UT Southwestern provided a number of courses in patient-oriented research and initiated institutional programs to support young clinical investigators. The Clinical Research Curriculum Award (CRCA) provides an opportunity to expand the existing UT Southwestern programs to provide more in-depth training and practical experience in the conduct of clinical research. It allows us to integrate the current annual symposium on "Techniques of Patient-Oriented Research" with in-depth courses in research design, biostatistics, and epidemiology. Moreover, we can now include a mentorship program which focuses on direct clinical research experiences including protocol design, preparation of informed consent documents, grant writing, and manuscript preparation. The proposed program will provide young physicians and scientists with the skills needed to conduct clinical investigations and to compete for federal and non-federal research funding.